Literally Heart Broken And Seeing Blood!

Transport in humans occurs in the human circulatory system. The most important parts of the circulatory system are the heart, the lungs and the blood. In this practical, we focused mainly on the heart, the key organ in the circulation of blood, as it pumps blood to the rest of the body. By dissecting a real heart, not only were we able to gain new information, but we were also able to apply what we had previously learnt. As the real thing is very different from what we see on paper, it was harder to identify and label the parts of the heart, but it was also a new experience which helped us understand more about the topic. The labelling and dissection of the heart can be seen here.

Before the dissection.

After the dissection.

The heart was rubbery and smooth. Determining the bigger side of the heart allowed us to differentiate between the left and right atriums and ventricles. To find out which was the aorta, which was the pulmonary artery, the vein and the vena cava, we found out how deep the holes were and which chambers they led to first. One of the problems we came across was dissecting the heart itself. The chordae tendineae was especilly hard to cut. Other than that, though, the practical was more or less enjoyable.